Grant Pentiricci ICAST2014 News Tackle

LiveTarget Baitball Yearling Evolution – ICAST 2014 New Products

by Grant Pentiricci July 16, 2014

LIVETARGET started off just a few years ago, in 2008, with a line of 36 lures. Today, their successful line of products has expanded to 750 lures. Building on its founding principle of Match-the-Hatch ™ lure concepts, LIVETARGET has launched a new set of lures built on the brand’s core principles to innovate. On the eve of ICAST 2014, the new line already has lots of buzz.

The BaitBall series was introduced at ICAST 2013 as a new concept to the fishing tackle trade. The concept was simple. “Last year we introduced BaitBall to the market,” claims visionary Grant Koppers. “At the time, we announced that our concept was more than just a one-time pattern, our vision extends into a whole new category,” continues Koppers. The introduction of a ‘juvenile’ sized Threadfin Shad, Emerald Shiner and Glass Minnow in 2013 was an immediate success and garnered top honors with a Best of Show award in the Hard Lure category at ICAST.

New LIVETARGET YEARLING Jerkbait – Introduced at ICAST 2014

THE LIVETARGET BAITBALL EVOLUTION CONTINUES

Fast-forward to ICAST 2014, as LIVETARGET prepares to launch the second wave of BaitBall products: The NEW Yearling™ BaitBall. This new product series is a concept developed around nature’s own baitfish hatchery. Young-of-the-year hatchling baitfish often become the core of the underwater food chain. The stats are simple. Fish lay thousands of eggs, but very few survive to adulthood. Lead lure designer Tobias Weigand states, “When all fish hatch from an egg, they’re tiny in mass. Hatchlings; such as alevin and fry, are generally eaten by very small fish and other baitfish. However, when they become yearlings, they are large enough to be foraged upon by game fish.” It is these year old baitfish that make up the new Yearling™ BaitBall. Weigand continues, “We know that game fish eat yearlings but we’ve never been able to match the hatch before unless we use a tiny lure.” Clustering yearlings into a BaitBall? configuration creates a natural presentation in a tool that is large enough to cast with adequate hooks to target larger game fish.

The new Yearling™ BaitBall series brings forth some of the most life-like lure patterns ever created using the intricate LIVETARGET design elements for baitfish anatomy and color patterns. It is further testimony to the LIVETARGET creed to Match-the-Hatch ™. The Yearling™ BaitBall series has been created around eleven distinct lure tools for technique specific applications:
• Squarebills: 2 sizes / 5 colors
• Crankbaits: 3 sizes/dive depths / 5 colors
• Jerkbaits: 2 sizes / 6 colors
• Rattlebaits: 2 sizes / 5 colors
• Walking baits: 2 sizes / 4 colors

The Yearling™ BaitBall will be available to retail partners in August and to consumers in September 2014. Yearling models will have a $17.99 MSRP.

We got a chance to see these baits in person, and can clearly see what the buzz is all about:

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Stay tuned for our full review on these new lures, once we test them on the water.